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Herbert Kopatscheck
© Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf

Herbert Kopatscheck * 1911

Bachstraße 63 (Hamburg-Nord, Barmbek-Süd)

HIER WOHNTE
HERBERT
KOPATSCHECK
JG. 1911
EINGEWIESEN 1914
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
´VERLEGT` 7.8.1943
HEILANSTALT EICHBERG
12.10.1943 HADAMAR
ERMORDET 19.10.1943

Herbert Kopatscheck, born 8.9.1911 in Hamburg, admitted to the former ‘Alsterdorf Asylum’ (‘Alsterdorfer Anstalten’, now Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) on 2.3.1914 and 23.2.1921, deported to the ‘Eichberg State Sanatorium’ in Eltville on 7.8.1943, transferred to the ‘Hadamar State Sanatorium’ on 12.10.1943, murdered there on 19.10.1943

Bachstraße 63 (Barmbek-Süd)

Paul Herbert Kopatscheck (callname Herbert) was born on 8 September 1911 in Hamburg-Barmbek, Schumannstraße 56. His parents, the journeyman shoemaker Karl Paul Kopatscheck, born on 1 April 1886 in Strehlen, District of Breslau, and Caroline Charlotte, née Nawratil, born on 22 July 1886 in Hussinetz, District of Strehlen, had married on 14 September 1907 in Neuhof. At the time, Neuhof belonged to the Prussian district of Harburg and only became part of Hamburg on 1 April 1938.

According to the Hamburg address book, the Kopatscheck family had lived at Bachstraße 63 in Barmbek since 1914.

Despite his complicated birth due to a breech presentation, Herbert Kopatscheck appeared to his parents to be healthy and developing well during the first four months of his life. Then abdominal complaints arose, which had to be treated at St George's Hospital. Syphilitic symptoms and a skin disease were also recognised there. The doctors prescribed Herbert a lubricating cure with Salvasan and iodine-sodium.

At the age of eleven months, he suffered meningitis, which was followed by seizures.

Herbert's mother was blind in her left eye. She was therefore treated in the outpatient clinic at St. Georg Hospital in October 1911, shortly after Herbert's birth. During her husband's stay in hospital from 8 to 21 February 1912, also at St. Georg Hospital, the doctors diagnosed him with the venereal disease lues, as they had previously done with his wife.

The Kopatscheck couple had already had one child each in 1908 and 1909, which cannot be found in the civil registers. The third child, Willi Karl Paul Kopatschek, was born on 9 September 1910. Like Herbert later on, he was already infected with Lues at birth and died on 13 October 1910 in St. Georg Hospital in Hamburg. After Herbert, two brothers were born on 12 July 1913 and later, both of whom are said to have been healthy.

Herbert Kopatscheck was admitted to the ‘Alsterdorf Asylum’ (‘Alsterdorfer Anstalten’, now Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) for the first time on 2 March 1914. A lumbar puncture (removal of cerebrospinal fluid) was performed due to a child's hydrocephalus (hydrocephalus internus). In 1914 and 1915 he was repeatedly hospitalised for headaches, angina, measles, intestinal catarrh and influenza.

After being discharged at his parents' request on 18 June 1920, Herbert had to be readmitted to Alsterdorf on 23 February 1921. Herbert's mother stated that the meningitis that had occurred in infancy had led to paralysis of the legs. Dr Gustav Marr, a doctor in private practice, also diagnosed a cramp in his left arm. The nine-year-old was not yet able to stand, he could - according to the doctor - ‘not stretch his legs and not bend them apart’. It was only at this age that he began to speak single words and count. The doctor therefore recommended that Herbert be admitted to Alsterdorf again, especially as the parents were unable to look after the child.

Herbert Kopatscheck developed slurred speech. For example, he would say ‘Breistift’ when he meant ‘Bleistift’ (pencil). He was still unable to walk, but could eat on his own. In October 1927, the staff observed convulsions in him, combined with unconsciousness and twitching in his limbs. In 1929, he survived a severe bout of pneumonia. He was initially regarded as calm, friendly and affectionate. In the 1930s, however, repeated conflicts with his fellow patients were mentioned. Although he was generally considered clean, he needed help with washing and brushing his teeth. If he got into arguments with carers, he was ‘calmed down’ by being ordered to stay in bed.

The parents kept in close contact with Herbert. They usually visited him twice a month. He was also often given leave to visit them.

In 1930, the Kopatscheck family suffered a stroke of fate: Herbert's father, who over the years had worked not only as a shoemaker but also as a self-employed fitter, construction worker and docker, was killed in a traffic accident on 16 December 1930. It is not known what effect this had on the family's circumstances, but it was certainly a major turning point.

Over the next few years, the reports about Herbert Kopatscheck were largely repetitive. His Alsterdorf patient file ends on 7 August 1943 with a note from senior physician Gerhard Kreyenberg: ‘Transferred to Eichberg due to severe damage to the asylum caused by air raids.’

During the heavy air raids on Hamburg in the summer of 1943 (Operation Gomorrah), the ‘Alsterdorf Asylum’ also suffered damage on the night of 29/30 July 1943 and then again on 3/4 August 1943. The head of the asylum, SA member Pastor Friedrich Lensch, asked the health authorities to approve the transfer of 750 patients, allegedly to make room for the wounded and bomb-damaged. In three transports between 7 and 16 August, a total of 468 girls and women, boys and men were transferred to the ‘Sanatorium and Nursing home Eichberg’ in Eltville, the ‘Sanatorium and Nursing home Kalmenhof’ in Idstein in the Rheingau, the ‘Sanatorium and Nursing home Mainkofen’ near Passau and the ‘Sanatorium and Nursing home Am Steinhof’ in Vienna.

Herbert Kopatscheck was one of the 76 children and men who were transferred to the ‘Eichberg Sanatorium and Nursing home’ on 7 August 1943.

Caroline Kopatscheck, who had been evacuated to Bayreuth after the bombing, only learnt about this afterwards. On 18 August 1943, she had asked the management of the ‘Alsterdorf Asylum’ how her son had fared. Apparently, the ‘Alsterdorf Asylum’ gave her information about the transfer and on 6 September 1943 she asked the management of the ‘Eichberg Asylum’ about her son's condition. ‘Hadamar’ was written in red on the letter. Caroline Kopatscheck was apparently led to believe that her son was in the ‘Eichberg Sanatorium and Nursing home’. It was not until 22 December 1943 that she received a letter from the ‘Hadamar State Sanatorium’ stating that a parcel sent to her son from the asylum in Eichberg had arrived that day and that the ‘Hadamar Asylum’ had only found out Caroline Kopatscheck's postal address as a result.

This letter also stated that Herbert Kopatscheck had been transferred from Eichberg to ‘Hadamar State Sanatorium’ on 12 October 1943 and had died there on 19 October 1943. His funeral had taken place ‘quietly in the hospital cemetery’.

During ‘Aktion T4’ until August 1941, the ‘Eichberg Asylum’ was one of the intermediate centres for the Hadamar killing centre near Limburg an der Lahn, where people were murdered with carbon monoxide. After the official end of the gas murders, murders continued in Hadamar by injecting morphine, instilling poisoned food and/or systematic malnutrition.

The death notice for Herbert Kopatscheck sealed by the Hadamar registry office is dated 26 January 1944, stating that he died on 19 October 1943. The causes of death were given as ‘mental illness’ and ‘intestinal flu’.

It is safe to assume that Herbert Kopatscheck was murdered.

Stand: January 2025
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: Adressbuch Hamburg 1915-1921; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 114178 Geburtsregister Nr. 860/1911 (Paul Herbert Kopatscheck), 11330 Heiratsregister Nr. 7/1907 (Karl Paul Kopatscheck, Caroline Charlotte Nawratil), 9850 Sterberegister Nr. 2405 (Karl Paul Kopatscheck); Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf Archiv Sonderakte V 105 (Paul Herbert Kopatscheck). Hamburger Gedenkbuch Euthanasie Die Toten 1939-1945 S. 310. Michael Wunder, Ingrid Genkel, Harald Jenner, Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr – Die Alsterdorfer Anstalten im Nationalsozialismus, Stuttgart 2016, S. 299 ff. Verlegt nach Hadamar – Die Geschichte einer NS-"Euthanasie-Anstalt" von Irmgard Gaertner (Vorwort), Bettina Winter (Bearbeitung, Mitarbeiter), Fred H Müller (Bearbeitung), Januar 2002, S. 118 ff.